Please log in

or

Register now for free

or

Choose your profile *

Email *

A valid e-mail address. All e-mails from the system will be sent to this address. The e-mail address is not made public and will only be used if you wish to receive a new password or wish to receive certain news or notifications by e-mail.

Password

Username *

Newsletters

Higher education updates from the THE editorial team

World University Rankings news

If you do not wish to be contacted about offers, products or services from THE/TES Global then please check this box

In the news: Dianne Willcocks

In the current climate there is no place for the modesty that has held back the college sector for so long, according to its new champion Dianne Willcocks.

Professor Willcocks intends to let ministers - and everyone else for that matter - know that the college sector has, for some time, been delivering everything the government has asked of universities.

Colleges have just been too slow at coming forward.

"The public has been diverted down a narrow track for too long, and I want to change that as quickly as possible," said Professor Willcocks, principal of York St John College and the new chair of the Standing Conference of Principals. "Without anyone really noticing, colleges have exceeded expectations in widening access, they have professionalised and modernised, they recruit and retain consistently well, and they offer the 'academic intimacy' that tends to turn out well-rounded individuals."

And Professor Willcocks should know. Over the past three years she has succeeded in turning around York St John, which was previously failing on a whole range of criteria. As an active advocate of the sector, she is a trustee of the Higher Education Staff Development Agency, a member of the Academic Advisory Board for the National Health Service University, a member of the Higher Education Funding Council's widening participation strategy committee and chair of the York Theatre Royal Trust, as well as being on the York Diocesan Board of Education, among other public duties in Yorkshire.

Professor Willcocks is a social scientist, specialising in the field of old age. She was previously assistant principal at Sheffield Hallam University and director of research at the University of North London.

"This is a strategically important time for higher education colleges, which have a distinctive role to play in the post-white paper world, and I look forward to securing success for our increasingly diverse student body," she said.

You've reached your article limit.

Register to continue

Registration is free and only takes a moment. Once registered you can read a total of 3 articles each month, plus: